Hedera
by Twirling Ivy
Summary: 4 years after beating the Labyrinth, Sarah is taken captive by the Elven King in hopes of luring Jareth to rescue her. Now Sarah must face a world of magic for the second time.
1. It's a Dull Life

It was 1990, 4 years since Sarah had ventured the Labyrinth, and yet she somehow could not leave it behind. At least, she might have ventured the Labyrinth, but she wasn't too sure. It all was most likely a dream; she had the book, and most likely had fallen asleep and subconsciously placed all of her fears and desires into the dream. This is what her therapist told her, and that totally made sense. She had not seen the characters from her dream since, nor had encountered anything that struck her as odd. However, that dream was so real, so detailed. She had never had a dream so vivid as that, and had never remembered the details of a dream for so long. Also, lately she had this strange feeling of being watched, like she was never alone. Sometimes when she was in her room studying, she could feel something looking at her from her mirror or the window, but when she turned around; Nothing. It would send chills up her spine. She was probably being neurotic, or maybe it had to do with what her therapist told her. She said that Sarah had an overactive imagination to cope with the boredom of reality.

As always, real life was was a dull pattern; school, friends, and dorm. Most often the cycle varied, but the outcome was always the same. Sarah was bored. Oh, she did her best to fit in at college. She didn't want to go through high school again, but she didn't feel as if she belonged. It wasn't hard for Sarah to fit in either; she was pretty, smart, and had the courage to speak her opinion. She didn't take crap from anyone, and she found people who liked that. She had even gone on dates, which bored her too. There had been a total of eleven of them. She would go out to dinner with a guy, then they would kiss, and then she didn't call them back. Sometimes, if he was attractive enough, she would. Then they sometimes would make out in his car after the second date, and she still felt no spark. The ones that made it past that (only 3) would take her back to their apartment or dorm and they would have sex. One of these guys actually pretty good in bed, which made their relationship last for 2 months, but once he noticed how emotionally distant she was, he broke up with her. She wasn't even that upset.

She called home regularly, checking in on Toby to make sure that he wasn't being emotionally neglected. Out of anyone, she loved him the most in the world. He had just turned five, and was still so adorable. He would tell her about the drawings of dinosaurs that he made at school, or about their dog, Merlin. He was the sunshine of her week. She had basically raised him before she went off to college, changing his diapers, recording his first steps, placing money under his pillow when he lost his first teeth, teaching him the alphabet. These were memories that she cherished. Leaving him behind was hard for both of them, he cried himself to sleep the night she left. She was only an hour away, so most weekends she would drive up and visit, taking him out for the day. By taking care of him, she knew that someday she wanted children of her own. Her 15 year old self was so stupid, taking out her frustrations on a baby and resenting it. It was pathetic, and she now knew that she had behaved childishly. She knew better now. The world turned for no one, especially her.

Thinking about Toby, she decided to call him. It was only eight-thirty, so he shouldn't have been sleeping. She was already sitting on her bed in her room, so the phone was right beside her. She picked up the phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?" asked a cool, female voice.

"Hi Karen, is Toby there?" asked Sarah, not wanting to talk to her stepmother. Even though she had grown up, she still detested the woman. She was demanding, selfish, and wanted Sarah to submit to her will. Sarah would never submit, and they would never see eye to eye.

"Sorry Sarah, he's sleeping." she replied, but just as soon as she did, she could hear a voice, though far away that squealed "Is that Sarah? Lemme say hi!" preceded by the sound of padding feet growing closer.

"Oh, well look who woke up." Sarah couldn't help but let a trace of smugness seep her voice.

"Sarah!" exclaimed Toby, having gotten ahold of the phone "Today we made butter in a jar in school! It was so cool!" He said this like it was the most amazing thing that he had ever done, like everything he did. "Then-then I drew a picture of an owl." He sounded so proud.

"That sounds great, I bet it looks awesome. Did you show your mom so she can put it on the fridge?"

"I'm not gonna put it on the fridge silly, I'm gonna give it to you when we go for pancakes this Saturday, like you promised."

"I look forward to it Tobes." He was so sweet, giving her all of his favourite drawings so that she could hand them on her wall in her dorm room. He said that it would make her think of him when he wasn't there, which was adorable.

Sarah could hear Karen in the background, telling Toby to finish up and go to bed. She was always such a bitch, not that Sarah would ever speak poorly of Toby's mother in front of him. "Sarah, mommy says I have to go to bed now. Love you lots!"

"I love you too. Sleep well."

"Night night Sarah."

"Good night Toby.", and with that, she hung up the phone. She decided to read for a while, as she had nothing better to do. She still had the book, Labyrinth. Her therapist told her to get rid of it, as it just encouraged her imagination to wander, but for some reason she couldn't bear to part with it. It had been a gift from her mother, not that she had faith in her mother any more. She used to dream that her mother would come back to get her, and take Sarah with her to Los Angeles. Of course, that never happened, and that dream had died a long time ago. Sarah knew that it was stupid to put so much faith into one person, especially one that abandons you and your father for some man. Her mother was a stage actress, hence Sarah's costume and fantasy obsessions. She used to put on a dress that looked like some fairy tale and rehearse lines as if she was in a play. It was a childish role-playing game that she did to escape reality. She had grown out of that of course, but she never lost her taste for pretty clothes or fantasy literature.

She curled up under her blankets on her bed and opened the book to the first page. As she began to read, she felt her eyes become heavy. Funny, she wasn't tired before. She felt herself start to drift away, as she sunk into her pillow. It might have been her imagination, but Sarah swore that just before she fell completely unconscious, that a pair of arms had slipped underneath her.


	2. The Room

Sarah felt cold. It was that kind of damp coldness that seeped into your bones. She grappled for the blankets, but found that there were none. If fact, now that she thought about it, she wasn't in a bed at all. What was underneath her was hard stone. She opened her eyes, and saw that she was no longer in her own room. It was dark, and the space seemed larger than her where she had fallen asleep. She squinted, trying to figure out where she was. All she could see were vague outlines. This alarmed her, bringing her to full consciousness. She slowly get to her feet, but then as she was almost standing at full stature, her head hit the ceiling. She decided to crawl on her hands and knees to feel her way around the darkness, meeting a wall. She felt her way along the wall, hoping to find a door.

"Hello?!", she cried. "Can somebody hear me? Help!" Of course, if she had been kidnapped, she was most likely in a place where no one who hear her screams, but it never hurt to try. She felt what seemed to be a wooden door and felt her way to a knob. She twisted it, only to find that it would not move.

"Where the hell am I?!", she screamed. This was so frustrating. She couldn't see, she was on her hands and knees on a cold stone floor, and she had most likely been kidnapped by a mob. If it was a ransom that they wanted, fat chance that she would make it out. She highly doubted anyone would pay for her life. Maybe they just planned on torturing, raping, and killing her. Maybe she had been taken by some serial killer, and this is where he kept the girls so that no one could hear their screams. Oh God, though Sarah, I'm too young to die.

Wait, isn't this what her therapist had been talking about? Maybe it was another vivid dream, and she was on her own floor in her dorm. She willed herself to wake up, but to no avail. She pinched her arm, but nothing changed. Ok, if the fucker who took her showed himself, unarmed, she would take his ass down. She shrieked as loud as she could, hoping a neighbor would hear. Then, she made her way around the room, finding a small, child-sized wooden table. She flipped it upside-down and put her foot against it. She snapped off one of the legs, prepared to use it to beat someone if they came in.

She heard two sets of footsteps outside, and she waited. Then, she heard two high pitched voices speaking. She shuffled to the door and lowered her head to the crack, which had a dim light shining through it, hoping that she could listen.

I's heard it's was an 'umans girlie in'ere.

An 'umans girlie? Was'a master plannin' on doin' wif'at?

I dunno, 'e says she's a special one.

I finks she's up. I 'erd 'er screamin'.

Besta go tell 'uh king dat duh girlies' awake.

She heard them walk away. Brilliant. Just great. They were going to go get the guy who put her in here to tell him that his chew toy was up and ready to play. Well she would show him how she could play, hands tightening on the wooden stick.

…

About what she felt was half an hour later, she heard oncoming footsteps again. She had her back to the wall furthest from the door, trembling hands holding the makeshift bat. She heard the jangle of what she assumed were keys, and mentally steeled herself. She was ready to pounce. The key went in to door and the lock clicked. The door opened. What was on the other side surprised her. It was not the hulking grungy man with brass knuckles that she expected. There were three. Two of them were very short, about 3 feet tall, and grey-skinned. They were making tittering noises and she could see their small, pointed teeth. They were skinny and imp like, with mops of black hair on the tops of their heads. Their feet were bare, and were tiny, with claw-like toenails. They stared at her with beady black eyes. They weren't ugly, but they were a little creepy.

The one in front of them however, was almost the opposite. They were so tall and slim, with an air of were so androgynous that she could not tell what gender they were. Man or woman however, they were beautiful. He/She had long silky blonde hair and wore long robes that shone silver. They wore a crown that seemed to be woven of silver ivy, its leaves glimmering in the light behind them. The dark blue stone in the center matched their slanted eyes. Their features were delicate; a long and straight nose, a bow shaped mouth, and pronounced cheekbones that make the face look all the more regal. Sarah stared, amazed by their beauty. She was almost distracted from her initial panic. Almost.

"Where am I? Who the hell are you?" she growled at them, wiping the awe off of her face. She glared, holding the stick in front of her.

"No need for alarm," a deep, presumably male, soothing voice responded from the pretty one, "We do not intend to harm you."

"Then why did you kidnap me you deranged fuck?" She had learned not to trust pretty faces and soothing words from the last trip to freak-town. She wasn't going to be suckered into submission.

"What a colourful choice of words." he smiled slightly, "We plan to keep you as bait of course Goblin Girl. Why else would we need you?"

"My parents won't pay you anything just to let you know. You chose the wrong bargaining chip. Next time pick someone a little more important."

He looked puzzled. "But my dear, you are important. You are what the Goblin King desires. I would count that as important."

She gaped at him. So it had been real. Not only that, but this guy was mistaking the Goblin King's games as a sign of 'affection'. She thought about it. If she told him the truth, she would probably more likely be killed. If she didn't, she might last long enough to figure out a way of escape. "How is he going to know that I'm here?"

"We've taken care of that. He will soon have word of this and come for you."

"And what if he doesn't come? I assume you'll just have off with my head." She figured that being blunt was the best approach, as stating the facts would not change her fate.

"That is what he thinks, but no, I'm sure that we could make use of you here. It would be a waste to kill one so young and beautiful. We place beauty in high standards here in my kingdom."

She paused, not knowing what to say to that. She was both afraid and curious of what he meant. "You still haven't told me where I am or who you are."

"Oh of course, how rude." He slowly bowed, arms behind his back. "I am the Elven King, and you are in a vacant servant chamber here in my castle."

If she was gaping before, she was gaping even harder now. There was even more to this world that didn't know yet, which wasn't surprising considering that she had only been in the Labyrinth for a matter of hours. "Well Elven King, if we are in the Labyrinth, then the Goblin King would already know that I'm here."

"You are mistaken. We are far outside the Labyrinth, approximately 2 days travel by foot."

"Oh.", and with that, Sarah didn't know what else to say.

"You can come out of this room if you wish. We only kept you in here until you woke up, to be sure that you wouldn't be erratically running about the castle." He stepped back, pushing back the snickering creatures behind him.

She wanted to keep her pride, but realized that staying in the cramped room wasn't going to prove anything. Not wanting to crawl in front of him. She stood up as far as she could, and walked out into the hall, which was made out of stone except for the red carpet beneath their feet. She stood about 3 feet from him. When rising to full stature, she found that he was taller than she thought, reaching only to his shoulder. She did not look up at his face, not wanting to look as inferior as she knew she did.

"No need to be frightened. While you stay here, you are my guest. You will be treated accordingly." he soothed.

Yeah, not very likely. "Where are we going?" She hoped that it was better than the under-sized room that she just came out of, or at least just larger.

"If you will just follow me, I will show you to your room. You will find someone there to attend to your needs." He lead the way down a set of hallways, which all looked the same with bare walls, and closed wooden doors. They were silent the whole time.

They stopped at a door after a few minutes. "This will be your room for now. I will leave you now." He smoothly walked away, the little grey creatures trailing behind him.

Sarah decided that there was no reason not to open the door, still gripping the stick. She turned the handle, and opened the door.


	3. Caution

When she opened the door, she was surprised at how nice her room was. The walls were still cold stone, and the floors were bare as well, but it was still nice. An extravagant bed was right in front of her. It was gorgeous; the fluffy white blankets and pillows were decorated in silver ivy embroidery. There were curtains around it that were gauzy and white, and the frame was silver with silver ivy wrapped around the bars. It was also the size of her entire dorm room. It was the princess bed that she had always dreamed of. She went to put her hand on it, and it sunk in it's feathery softness. It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen.

Someone cleared their throat behind her. She spun around to find another grey creature. This one was inherently female, wearing a simple brown dress, black hair tied into a long braid. Unlike the ones following the king, she had a soft air to her. She didn't seem as creepy. "Miss, master said to have yous clean an' dressed."

"What for?"

" 'e didn' say. I's Mage at yer service." She did a little curtsy. Sarah thought she was kind of cute in an endearing way.

"I'm Sarah. Mage, I've seen more of your kind with the king. What are you exactly? If you don't mind me asking."

"I's a sprite, like mos'of 'e servants."

"Ah. Ok, so I guess I'll wash up then. Don't want to get you in trouble." Mage smiled a small, closed-mouth smile. She lead Sarah to a door on her left, which opened to reveal a bathroom with a porcelain bath. The bah was already drawn, and she could smell a faint hint of jasmine. She realized that the sprite was not going to leave her alone, so she just stripped in front of her. She stepped into the water,and it was heavenly. Warmth rushed back to her body as she sank into the water. She felt herself relax in the water, dipping her hair in and massaging her scalp.

"Let Mage help, miss." Mage came up behind her head with a bottle in hand. Sarah closed her eyes as a jasmine smelling liquid was rubbed into her hair. She was then told to dunk her head under, and did so, rinsing it out. Mage tried to use a brush to exfoliate Sarah's skin, but Sarah felt that she should do that herself.

Ten minutes later, fluffy towels around her head and body, she was lead back into her room. She sat on a chest that was in front of the bed as Mage went and opened what appeared to be a wardrobe. Inside were about 10-12 dresses, all of which she assumed fit her. How long have they been watching me? she wondered. It was kind of creepy that they had prepared a wardrobe in advance, but then again, they had kidnapped her. All of it was creepy really.

Mage pulled out a dress that was long and bold red, swirling patterns of silver embroidered on the material. They really seemed to have a thing for silver here. Mage helped her put it on. It reached the floor, and was made of a strong, yet light material. It fit in a way that made her cleavage strain at the top. Mage brought a pot of crimson wax, which Sarah assumed was lipstick. Mage applied it expertly to Sarah's lips. Mage sat her down and dried her hair, then braided it into a bun, twining silver wire to secure it. She then found a pair of silver ivy earrings and a matching necklace in a drawer in the wardrobe.

"Miss is ready now. Come wi'me please." Mage opened the entrance door of the room and escorted Sarah out, leading her down a set of hallways. They stopped at a large door. Mage knocked on this one. The door was opened by another sprite, and Mage then left Sarah. Scurrying down the hall.

It was a grand dining hall, with five elves dressed in robes of silver and red. There was an empty chair beside the king. They were all turned towards her, staring at her cooly. She could not tell the men apart from the women. From what she could see of their bodies, they were all tall, slim, graceful, and absolutely curveless. Maybe they were all men, and maybe not. She stood in her spot, waiting to be directed on where to go. She didn't want to sit by the king and look like a fool.

"Sarah," said the king, "Come." She did not like that he could beckon her, but she went to him, head held high, not looking directly at anyone. She would play by the rules laid out until she could formulate a plan of escape. She didn't even know how to get around the halls, let alone leave the castle. Besides, where would she go if she got out? This wasn't her world.

She sat by his side, matching his gaze. He was a blank card, the only thing registering on his face was the same calm, small smile. Then she realized, she had never told him her name. But of course he knows. she thought He's been stalking me. This disturbed her. She wondered how much they watched her. Every prickle down her neck, every shiver, had that been him?

"How are you finding your accommodations?", he asked.

Despite the fact that she had been kidnapped, and knew that the elves were probably sly and evil under their cool faces, this was still better than her last visit to this world. Not that she would let him know that. "It would be better if I knew why it was necessary to bring me here." she said icily.

"I told you that already, to bring the Goblin King here."

"What do you intend to do once he gets here?"

"He has something that I want, and once he has given it to me, he may leave."

"What is so important to go to these lengths?"

"You ask too many questions. What he has of mine is for me to know."

A pair of elves were whispering something. She was able to pick up the words insolent and mannerless. She didn't care though, and why would she? Why put up the charade of dressing her up like some important guest? So she asked "Why would you bother to sit me here, and dress me up? What is the point?"

"All you do is ask questions, it is growing tiresome. There is no reason to lock you up and feed you gruel like a savage as long as you behave. Don't you agree?"

"I suppose so."

"Then good. Just enjoy dinner and sit by my side. That is all that I ask for now."

Sprites opened the doors with trays of food. In front of Sarah was a plate, a wine glass, and a row of cutlery. The sprites placed what appeared to be a red soup in front of her. They filled her glass with a bubbly light drink. She tasted the soup, which was thick and contained herbs that she did not recognize. She took a sip of the drink. It was sweet and tasted as if it belonged in a flower. Everything was delicious.

Two courses and 3 glasses later, Sarah felt as light as a cloud. She giggled, warmth reaching her fingertips. The king had sipped on the same glass the entire time. He must be used to it. thought Sarah. The food sat light in her stomach. She was full, but did not get that heavy binge feeling in her stomach. Must be why they're all so skinny. Their food is probably really low cal. She smiled at the king.

" 's far as kidnappings go, this is pretty good." She saw his smile widen for a second. She saw a smirk reach his lips, and disappear just as quickly as it came. "Man," she sighed, "you guys make Jareth look downright emotional." She was feeling content. She was warm, she was fed, and she was wearing a pretty dress.

"I think it's time for you to retire Sarah. You've had a little much to drink." He stared at her critically. She realized that the rest of the table, who had been pretty quiet the entire time, was smirking at her. They sure knew how to intimidate a girl, not that she cared at this point.

She widened her eyes. "You have alcohol in this world?"

"It isn't the same as yours exactly, but yes."

"Wow, I wonder what it would be like to see you get tipsy."

"I think I have a bit more self control than that. I will escort you to your chamber." He took her hand, and lead her away from the table, sets of eyes following them out of the room. He lead her silently through the hall, stopping at her room. "This is where I bid you goodnight." He bowed at her in his smooth, graceful way.

"God, you are such a gentleman. You are hard to figure out. I don't know what to make of all of this, and you. Why are you treating me like royalty? It's confusing.", she moaned. She looked into his eyes, which told her nothing. "I don't know what you're up to, and I know you're planning something but I dunno what to think..." He didn't reply, just simply opened her door and nudged her in by the small of her back.

Mage was there, and took her hand. The door was shut behind them, and Mage got her ready for bed, changing her into a white nightgown and removed the red lipstick with a rag and oil. Mage unwound her hair and took out the wire. She placed the jewelry back into the drawer in the wardrobe, and beckoned Sarah to the bed, lifting the blankets. Sarah sunk into the bed, feeling like she was being enveloped in a warm cloud. " 'Night" Sarah sighed.

"Good night miss. Rest well." she heard Mage say. She felt herself drift quickly, and then was gone.


End file.
